Rafael Leao spoke to the media after Milan’s defeat to Atalanta and admitted that ‘it is hard to explain’ why the Rossoneri failed to turn up at San Siro tonight.
Atalanta quickly took control of the game in the first half, dominating possession for most of the first 45 minutes, but Milan had some chances to take the lead before the break. Leao had the biggest one but completely failed, and thus received a 5/10 in our player ratings.
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Speaking to DAZN after the game, as transcribed by MilanNews, Leao shared his thoughts on what went for Milan. He admitted that ‘it is difficult to explain’ but made it clear that they will give their all to at least experience Coppa Italia joy.
You’ve often put your face out there… Why is this team struggling so much?
“It’s hard to explain. I don’t come here to always say the same things… What I can say is that since Conceicao arrived, we have often managed to come back from behind in matches. The coach brought us this thing. Sometimes we play well and don’t win, other times we play badly and win. I don’t have an explanation.
“Now we no longer have European commitments, so we can prepare for the matches better. Against Udinese it went very well, today was a strange match. We could have scored the first goal, especially after we had come in with more determination and desire in the second half, but with a counterattack, in which they are very strong, they managed to score.
“There’s a very important match on Wednesday and we have to give it our all, to win, go to the final and bring joy to all the fans, including you (referring to Ambrosini, editor’s note). But also for us: this season is very difficult. We will try to give something to all of you.”
How much responsibility do you have?
“It’s a derby, there’s not much to say. We have to go in with the right desire to win. And then get it into our heads that it’s a competition to win.”
For Leao, the San Siro curse continued tonight as he’s yet to score a league goal at the stadium this season. He has scored in the Coppa Italia there, though, so perhaps he can grab an important goal against the city rivals on Wednesday.
Milan has played well against Atalanta but only miss the opportunity and the opponent are more difficult to beat. They’re compact team.
the way Milan play and the spirit are good. Just give them more time play together. Reduce our error basic passing the ball. Please…
Yeah, some people complain we played like trash against Atalanta while in fact we play equally, just because we lose doesnt mean we play badly. This is a new formation, the playstyle isnt refined yet and there is still a lot of potential improvement that can be made. People these days just want instant result without trusting the process. Even Ancelotti and Guardiola need some time to stamp their play
Yess bro.. even ancelotti back to Milan now, he will only ruin his amazing curriculum vitae. Hahaha
We played well against Atalanta, in the 2nd half Milan play possession football for half field. We just need the process.
They played well but the coach got the substitutions all wrong.
just play jovic alongside leao or pulisic with Abraham upfront. If Abraham is coming from the bench to replace the tired one between pulisic and Leao.
No jovic out, Abraham in; let them play together.
I expected to see Abraham alongside jovic; after conceding he should have just brought on Abraham for Pulisic.
Playing an unfit gimenez and an unconvincing Felix is unacceptable.
Someone is blackmailing the coach to play Felix and he only threw in Gimenez to make it seem less awkward. Mr Sergio, must Felix play?
Gimenez is injured & has flopped (try again next season) and Felix is an irredeemable flop.
Difficult to explain????????!!!! 😀 😀 😀
WTF??? It was simple. Atalanta were 100x better. They played as a team – we didn’t. They beat us in every department 100-0. We created nothing. We lost the ball in less than 10 seconds every time we got it. Difficult to explain? Even Musah with zero footballing IQ knows why we lost. Plain simple.
There is only 2-3 players on the pitch who care about the results. That’s the problem. The management don’t know what to do and that reflects on the squad. They brought in the wrong players.
There. Was it hard to explain? Nope.
Plus 1 man who care about the Milan results: conceicao
Haha…
Please please get rid of leao he don’t track back he’s
A bloody lazy player and to much of a luxury player. He’s got to go play someone who is going to work
The left hand side against inter if we don’t we will get battered. God help us.
Sell Leao for 80M, buy Assane Diao for 40M and Ricci for 40M. Two for one, squad improved overall.